BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 30. The issue of the base rate increase by the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) is expected to be off the agenda temporarily, Gulnara Khaidarshina, Deputy Head of the Market Analysis Department at the Russian Gazprombank, told Trend.
"Nevertheless, in the absence of the disinflationary trend predicted by the Central Bank of Azerbaijan in the second half of the year and/or an increase in external inflationary pressure, the CBA may return to the matter of rate increase," she said.
According to Khaidarshina, given the stable dynamics of deposits in manat and dollarization of deposits, this decision by the CBA was expected.
Earlier, Gazprombank also predicted the refinancing rate to remain unchanged at 7.75 percent.
"No serious increase in deposits dollarization has been observed in Azerbaijan despite the negative real rate interest, and the dynamics of deposits in manat remain stable. We believe that the absence of a pronounced upward trend in dollarization gives the CBA an opportunity to avoid raising the rate as of now and focus on non-monetary anti-inflationary measures," Khaidarshina said.
The CBA has previously decided to leave the base rate unchanged, at the level of 7.75 percent.
According to the CBA, the upper limit of the interest-rate corridor remained at 9.25 percent, while the lower limit was 6.25 percent.
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